Cities to live in for training/racing

As you noted - don't plan on climbing Mt Evans (highest paved) or Trail Ridge ( highest paved in Ntnl Park) in the winter months. High passes take a lot of work to keep open and Evans/TR aren't. Can climb Look Out Mtn "(Buff. Bill's Grave") out of Golden earlier/ later. Spectacular in season, but winter will infringe on your climbing in CO. Lower elevations snows melt from roadways relatively quickly. Babes in spandex all year long ... AZ could be a nice place! :grin: (I have relatives there and it is terrific.)

 

If you're thinking UC Davis (Davis is only 45 minutes drive from Mt Diablo and Walnut Creek) then that opens you up to cheaper rent of places like Davis, Vacaville and Sacramento. Both Davis and Vacaville are close to Lake Berryessa that has some very quiet and well surfaces roads. Take a look at the stages of the Tour of California from a few years ago from Sacto to Santa Rosa. miles of wooded single lane highway with hardly any straight or flat roads... There's pretty much year round racing. Vacaville is closer to the Bay Area whilst Davis has a 20 minute advantage, drive wise, to the big climbs of the Sierras and Lake Tahoe. If you plan to ride but like beer then you better kiss a Pro Tour career goodbye. Far too many good microbreweries around that neck of the woods. UC Davis is home to too many liberal f**ks that need to be smacked upside the head with a big stick. It's like a mini me Berkeley. That rent-a-cop that tear gassed a bunch of kids that wouldn't move in the protests a few years ago, was right.

 

"UC Davis is home to too many liberal f**ks that need to be smacked upside the head with a big stick. It's like a mini me Berkeley. That rent-a-cop that tear gassed a bunch of kids that wouldn't move in the protests a few years ago, was right."

I owe you a six of your favorite brew!

Sadly, Colorado, Arizona and even Texas are filling up with libtards fleeing the ruin they've wrought in Commiefornia.

I have to say that from one end of Cali to other, the racing and training scene is awesome. Colorado, likewise. Climbs, altitude and lots of fast folks to train with.

 

Give someone a thimbleful of power and they turn into a despot. That rent a cop is a sad excuse for someone in a uniform and exactly one of the reasons why the 2nd Amendment needs to stand strong.

 

Hippies: Occupy UC Davis!

Cop: SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS




What? You were never gassed at a Jefferson Airplane concert when Grace got arrested?

I mean, it ain't like he went all Kent State on those future leaders of our Republic or anything!

Meh. That's the trouble with cities in general. Too much drama. Too little circuit races around the campus.


"...one of the reasons why the 2nd Amendment needs to stand strong."
I'll agree with you there, although I doubt I would ever find getting gassed reason to shoot a sworn peace officer (I'm assuming UC Cal Kampus Kops are sworn. Some of Ohio state college officers are...some are not. I'll take my chances on hitting the tax lottery rebate in a court of law. Kampus Kops and hippies...going at it toe-to-toe ever since the Ohio State National Guard was eliminated from the festivities!

 

Time to take your meds boys.....

BTW, did you read that the pepper spray cop is now trying to collect workman's comp for the mental stress he suffered by having to pepper spray those students?

I thought it was only those weak libruls that wanted the nanny state to take care of all their little worries. Looks like this neo-thug needs a good hug after all the trauma that spraying those non resisting kids put him through. It must have been terrifying to mace a dozen college kids just sitting there and not putting up a fight, can you imagine the horror?

http://www.towleroad.com/2013/07/uc-davis-pepper-spray-cop-claims-psychiatric-injury-files-workers-comp.html

When I was living in Berkeley the largest student group was The Young Republicans, seems like the trend has continued: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116130960571998544.html

Not exactly the hotbed of revolt it was fifty years ago, way too much money in Berkeley and the Oakland Hills to lean too far left. Sure it's a college campus and they'll always have the Berkeley reputation but there's more folks going there to study business, engineering, microbiology and law and looking to make a buck than trying to topple the government.

-Dave

 

20 years old. No job. And that is all you have to say about your economic position.

You were a Cat3 and are now a Cat3. Not a great deal of improvement.

---

A light weight rack to carry a sleeping bag and a couple changes of clothes get you housing. FedEx any bike parts or clean clothes you need.

Pack up your gear in the morning. Ride someplace to breakfast. Do 5 hours of hard riding with your gear. Unpack your stuff. Do a couple hours a hard training. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. Follow the weather.

You will get strong. You will get tough. It will be cheap. In the end you will still be a Cat3.

A person with ambition would know where to find appropriate bicycling.

 

"BTW, did you read that the pepper spray cop is now trying to collect workman's comp for the mental stress he suffered by having to pepper spray those students?"

Paybacks iz a beotch! The looey is going to get paid...for all that stress and anguish 'n stuff!

Meh...Berzerkely is still all that!





But...the weather is awesome. Ohio weather blows donkey balls.




"20 years old. No job. And that is all you have to say about your economic position."

Trust fund baby?

If the lad is willing to work stocking shelves at night to train and race, he may just be solid. He'll never know where he can get unless he makes the journey. Hell, I was bummin' around Europe on a touring bike when I was 21 (I had a signed contract for my next job in the fall)...sadly, even then I knew I didn't have the tools to be a pro...or even an amateur capable of earning my next meal! But, there's never been a day in my life I regretted making that trip.

I envy the OP. Dude has got his priorities straight! Train hard. If you spend the rest of your days holding a Cat. 3 card...well, there's far worse fates than waiting tables, racing your ass off and starting your career as an ME (33 years as an aerospace industry mechanical design engineer and I would have rather spent those decades as a piano player in a whorehouse) a year later.

 

What relevance do the politics of BigotBob and Swampy1970 have to do with the question at hand? Nothing at all. It's just worthless diversion on their parts.

 

I do have a job for starters. It is just in Austin, not a bad place for riding by any stretch but there are better places.

As far as the school thing goes, I can always go back to school. If I stay in for this one year and keep trying to ride though I could screw up opportunities down the road with bad grades. As far as plans for work, I'm looking for weird hours. Restocking shelves at target at night so i can train and race when it is light out, or wake up at 4am to get people coffee at 5am type thing. Don't need a ton of money to make ends meet.

And yeah I might just be a Cat 3 forever, at least I'll get a year to say "I gave it a shot." It would suck to look back on life and ask myself "what if I went for my dreams?"

I won't respond to any of your future comments, btw. I'm too easily bated by trolling.

 

Observing Kevin M. on Strava that seems to be where he is at quite often. It must be a great training course.

 

Yeah, Kevin lives right at the base of Diablo, there are two ways to the top and both are great not to mention a bunch of MTB trails on and around the mountain. Tons of other good riding out that way as well. We used to ride Diablo from Berkeley a few times a season but it's something like 90 miles round trip from Berkeley so it wasn't an everyday thing.

-Dave

 

"What relevance do the politics of BigotBob and Swampy1970 have to do with the question at hand? Nothing at all. It's just worthless diversion on their parts."

 

I have visited CO a few times and absolutely love the place. In ski towns like Breckenridge, the ski shops rent bikes in the summer. If I were in your position, I would seek employment in Frisco, CO and ride the AWESOME Frisco/Breckenridge trail five days a week, and Independence Pass the other two.

 

Those are expensive places to live and aren't close at all to universities, which is something that the OP mentioned.

 

Well I've applied to jobs in Fort Collins, Grand Junction and Walnut Creek. Heard back from Fort Collins already, might have a job I can scuttle off to in a couple weeks might not though. I'll update when I know for sure where I'm headed and about riding training and what not, the whole adventure.

 

That the cop is trying to collect workers comp is as much of a crock of s**t as the students that got pepper sprayed recieving a payout - considering they repeatedly ignored police requests to move camp, to not litter, to not camp on what is essentially private property and finally ignored a police ultimatum to move by a particular time. Only in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia. Davis, for the most part is a cool place. A big cycling community, small town charm and apparently the UC is increasingly becoming a bike party college where the girls like to get drunk and put out...

 

" where the girls like to get drunk and put out..."

Wait! Wut?!?! There's a redeeming social value in Commiefornia?!

You know...the Greeks don't want no freaks!




"Well I've applied to jobs in Fort Collins..."

There's lots of good riding around the Greeley-Loveland-Longmont-Estes Park-Flagstaff area. Climb your legs off. For better or worse, Denver isn't a long drive away. The road system isn't as developed as back East, but the roads they have are Class A riding.

 

Eh, it all sounds like a pipe dream anyway, but thanks for taking the time to post about the inadequacies of my reply.